Postproduction Hardware Manufacturer and Software Supplier - £4m

The client was a three-man team who had developed a product that was subsequently found to have huge appeal in the worldwide postproduction market. The client company had grown to £4m turnover. Although their engineering and software skills were strong, as was their market knowledge, the three directors failed to apply basic business controls to their firm. Collingwood was hired to provide improved control over the operations and particularly the financial side of the business.

The client had rapidly grown to £4m t/o, but struggled to maintain control of both its finances and its operations. The most significant improvements made by Collingwood were:

• Control of cash. Previously the client had no control over cash. Weekly control over current assets and liabilities was established within a month. This meant that directors could act with confidence when carrying out product and market development, and had a degree of confidence about the future.
• Management accounts. Previously there had been no reporting to show the cost of the various functions and projects undertaken by the firm. This allowed the directors to understand the implications of their policies and the profit and cash effect of these policies.

The firm became more profitable and started to grow again.Shortly after Collingwood involvement (16 months, for 58 days) the firm was sold to Miranda Technologies, a Canadian multinational.